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2019: WE NEED A TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION Commission in the US now for the Adoption Programs that stole generations of children... Goldwater Institute's work to dismantle ICWA is another glaring attempt at cultural genocide.

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Wednesday, March 13, 2019

High levels of perceived Poverty justifies removal of American Indian children (again?)

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How does measuring poverty and welfare affect American Indian children? (aka #povertyporn)

For one group of children in particular, American Indians and
Alaska Natives, exceedingly high poverty rates have had profound impacts
on community wellbeing and long-term cohesiveness. Given the best
available data, from the U.S. Census data, child poverty rates among
American Indians and Alaska Natives have consistently exceeded 40% for
almost the past 30 years.*

“Small sample sizes in population surveys have made it
particularly difficult to reliably measure poverty rates among American
Indian and Alaska Native children. Moreover, we know little about the
effectiveness of a number of important programs and policies – whether
provided by the tribes, by the states, or by the federal government –
that affect this population.”

As a result, it is quite difficult to accurately track the impact
that various programs have had on child poverty over time or how
applicable standard assessments of what poverty looks like actually are
to American Indian communities.
Are conditions as bad as indicated by
the official poverty rates shown above? (see website)

Historically, high levels of
perceived poverty have been used to justify the removal of American
Indian children from their households by state foster care systems. As
recently as the 1970s, state welfare agents were removing almost one
third of all American Indian children from their households and placing
them in state foster or adoptive care systems. (Mannes, 1995)

One of the aims of the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) of 1978 was to
stop the removal of American Indian children from their households due
to poverty. A number of studies had confirmed that social workers were
removing American Indian children from households not due to
maltreatment or being orphaned but simply due to the perceived poverty
status of the household (see MacEachron, Ann E., and Nora Gustavsson,
2005). The ICWA legislation was intended to improve tribal control over
the determination and placement of American Indian children within the
foster care system.

Congress reaffirmed tribal government authority and oversight of the
placement of its own citizens – its children. Tribal courts were
delegated the authority and jurisdiction over the placement of its own
citizens (and those eligible for tribal citizenship enrollment) in
foster or adoptive homes.
For instance, Chris Newell (Passamaquoddy; Director of Education;
Akomawt Educational Initiative) describes a fundamental misunderstanding
of the concept of family and neglect in his Passamaquoddy community in
Maine:

“In Maine, parents would often leave their children with their
grandparents or other extended family members when they would leave for
seasonal work elsewhere. To the state, however, this constitutes neglect
and could qualify a child for removal. In reality, our children’s needs
were commonly met by extended family and community beyond the nuclear
family.”

Mr. Newell served as a senior advisor on a recent documentary film called “Dawnland,”
which exposes the impact of such practices on American Indian children
and their parents decades later in the state of Maine. The film depicts
the long-term trauma and damage that resulted from the removal of
children from their families; it also shows the damage to the children
caused by their removal from their kinship network and cultural
connections.

Individuals with little exposure to or
experience with American Indian communities would have little to no
knowledge of these forms of social safety nets.

Assessing economic conditions may also be quite difficult for
individuals who are unfamiliar with American Indian communities and
practices. There are important culturally-specific safety nets that
exist in many American Indian communities; most of which would be
unknown to outsiders. Individuals with little exposure to or experience
with American Indian communities would have little to no knowledge of
these forms of social safety nets.

The recent NAS report indicates that even standard measures of
poverty are difficult to measure for the American Indian population.
However, neither the Official Poverty Measure (OPM) nor the Supplemental
Poverty Measure (SPM), which includes taxes and federal government
in-kind transfers, account for community or kinship in-kind transfers or
from tribal governments. In certain American Indian communities, for
instance, hunting, trapping, fishing and other subsistence activities
are important parts of the economic and social interactions of community
members. These activities do not show up directly as cash income nor
are they identified as federal government in-kind transfers. As a
result, the OPM and SPM measures may not accurately depict the general
welfare of American Indian families or children. In fact, they may
understate the resources in some families and whole communities.

While this does not dismiss the fact that child poverty is probably
still too high in many American Indian reservations, it does indicate
that there may be other activities or practices that exist in non-market
(even non-governmental) forms to assist families. Subsistence
activities and the sharing of resources is difficult to document with
administrative records or tax returns; nevertheless, these safety nets
have played an important role in these communities for hundreds if not
thousands of years. Individuals with little exposure to or experience
with American Indian communities would have little to no knowledge of
these forms of social safety nets.

Challenges to ICWA often focus on an erroneous assumption that these
policies are race-based.
However, providing tribal government
jurisdiction and authority over its own citizens’ welfare is based on
American Indian tribal sovereignty- not race. Tribal citizenship
enrollment and eligibility is based on tribal government rules which are
often specific to a particular tribe and may require showing direct
lineal descent from certain enrolled ancestors; there may be other
additional conditions for tribal citizenship such as a minimum blood
quantum, residency requirement or demonstrated relationship with the
community. In the current court case, Brackeen v. Zinke, where
oral arguments are scheduled to begin in the Fifth Circuit court this
week, the same arguments have been made. ICWA has played an important
role in stopping the seizure of American Indian children from their
communities. Misunderstanding of how American Indian communities care
for their own children and the inability to assess non-monetary
well-being of American Indian communities should not play a role in the
removal of children from their homes. ICWA plays a critical role in
safeguarding these children and maintaining the local and tribal
authority for placing American Indian children in foster or adoptive
care. Let’s not go backwards.

Sources:“7 Other Policy and Program
Approaches to Child Poverty Reduction.” National Academies of Sciences,
Engineering, and Medicine. 2019. A Roadmap to Reducing Child Poverty.
Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. Page XXX. doi:
10.17226/25246Mannes, M. (1995). Factors and events leading to the passage of the Indian Child Welfare Act. Child Welfare, 74(1), 264–282.National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2019. A
Roadmap to Reducing Child Poverty. Washington, DC: The National
Academies Press. “7 Other Policy and Program Approaches to Child Poverty
Reduction.” Page 203. doi: 10.17226/25246.MacEachron, A. E., Gustavsson, N. S., Cross, S., & Lewis, A.
(1996). The effectiveness of the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978. The
Social Service Review, 70(3), 451–463.

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*Editor Note: The government takes the land AND causes the poverty, then they want more LAND and take the children to achieve this goal. The genocide cycle never ends... That is the sport of colonization and empire. Trace

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Indian Country is under attack. Native tribes and people are fighting hard for justice. There is need for legal assistance across Indian Country, and NARF is doing as much as we can. With your help, we have fought for 48 years and we continue to fight.

It is hard to understand the extent of the attacks on Indian Country. We are sending a short series of emails this month with a few examples of attacks that are happening across Indian Country and how we are standing firm for justice.

Today, we look at recent effort to undo laws put in place to protect Native American children and families. All children deserve to be raised by loving families and communities. In the 1970s, Congress realized that state agencies and courts were disproportionately removing American Indian and Alaska Native children from their families. Often these devastating removals were due to an inability or unwillingness to understand Native cultures, where family is defined broadly and raising children is a shared responsibility. To stop these destructive practices, Congress passed the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA).

After forty years, ICWA has proven to be largely successful and many states have passed their own ICWAs. This success, however, is now being challenged by large, well-financed opponents who are actively and aggressively seeking to undermine ICWA’s protections for Native children. We are seeing lawsuits across the United States that challenge ICWA’s protections. NARF is working with partners to defend the rights of Native children and families.

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To Veronica Brown

Veronica, we adult adoptees are thinking of you today and every day. We will be here when you need us. Your journey in the adopted life has begun, nothing can revoke that now, the damage cannot be undone. Be courageous, you have what no adoptee before you has had; a strong group of adult adoptees who know your story, who are behind you and will always be so.

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ADOPTION TRUTH

As the single largest unregulated industry in the United States, adoption is viewed as a benevolent action that results in the formation of “forever families.” The truth is that it is a very lucrative business with a known sales pitch. With profits last estimated at over $1.44 billion dollars a year, mothers who consider adoption for their babies need to be very aware that all of this promotion clouds the facts and only though independent research can they get an accurate account of what life might be like for both them and their child after signing the adoption paperwork.

This has happened to many, many Native children! We must protect ICWA and enforce it so that it stops! Even non-Native families that are not racist cannot provide a Native child with cultural knowledge and belonging. Only their tribes can do that. #ProudtoProtectICWAhttps://t.co/oA1e5kiK4k

A4: Twenty-one states filed an amicus brief in this case in support of #ICWA. These states, which are home to over 70 percent of tribal nations, know that ICWA helps them better serve Native children and families.#ProudtoProtectICWA

TWO WORLDS Book 1 (second edition)

Two Worlds anthology (Vol. 1)

“…sometimes shocking, often an emotional read…this book is for individuals interested in the culture and history of the Native American Indian, but also on the reading lists of universities offering ethnic/culture/Native studies.”

“Well-researched and obviously a subject close to the heart of the authors/compilers, I found the extent of what can only be described as ‘child-snatching’ from the Native Americans quite staggering. It’s not something I was aware of before…”

“The individual pieces are open and honest and give a good insight into the turmoil of dislocation from family and tribe… I think it does have value and a story to tell. I was affected by the stories I read, and amazed by the facts presented…. because it is saying something new, interesting and often astonishing.”

Did you know?

Good words

I agree with you on the caring of “orphans” – true orphans, not “paper orphans” as Kathryn Joyce describes in her book, The Child Catchers. The most important thing to remember, however, is that the orphan’s original identity and family connection and heritage must remain intact and available to him or her forever. This business of adoption – and I do mean the multi-billion-dollar, unregulated business of adoption – of wiping out the child’s original identity, falsifying birth records with the adopters’ names, altering facts such as place of birth, severing familial kinship, must stop … Immediately. And the outrageous injustices foisted upon adoptees and their families for the past 100 years must be addressed and righted. We are faced today with six to seven million people who were basically legally kidnapped, sold to the highest bidder, their identities falsified, and placed in a lifelong, imposed witness protection program for which there is no legal recourse. Then told by church officials, agency and government functionaries that they have no right to know who they are, to do genealogy or learn about important family medical history, or know the identity of or associate with blood relatives. This is how the Judeo-Christian society has interpreted “caring for orphans”, for it’s own selfish interests and greed. Starting with Georgia Tann, the woman charged with kidnapping and selling 5,000 children, most of whom were given to the rich and powerful who then colluded with her to “seal” adoptions and cover their nefarious activities (see, for example, Gov. Herbert Lehman, NY, 1935).

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